Black Creek Community Farm

Mildred Agsaoay and Adjowa Karikari from Black Creek Community Farm talk about the farm, its programs, and the community.

Today on the podcast we visit the Black Creek Community Farm in Toronto.

The farm is located along the northern boundary of the City of Toronto, in a densely populated neighbourhood where Toronto meets one of its northern suburbs, within walking distance of the Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

If you’re from Toronto, you’ll know Jane and Finch — at least by name — from the media attention it gets.

The good things going on in the area — and that there is a vibrant community here — don’t get a lot of media attention, so it might be a surprise for some people to connect Jane and Finch with urban farming, with growing food, and with growing community through food.

“When you do something from the heart, when you’re passionate about what you do, I think you can do big things.” Mildred Agsaoay

Unique Property

Founded in 2012, the Black Creek Community Farm is on an eight-acre property that includes three acres of farmland, a heritage farmhouse and barn, and forest that extends into the Black Creek ravine.

The property has a market garden, a food forest, greenhouses, an outdoor classroom, an outdoor brick pizza oven, a medicine-wheel garden, a mushroom garden, a chicken coop, and beehives.

At the Farm

There are a number of programs at the Black Creek Community Farm.

• The Urban Harvest program, a partnership with the City of Toronto, facilitates sharing of surplus harvest by community members with food banks.

• There are workshops about growing, cooking, and food preservation.

• Programs for seniors help prevent social isolation. Participants tend the gardens, cook together, and even have exercise programs together.

• Programs for school-age children build awareness of plants and growing—but also social justice and food justice. Adjowa Karikari, who facilitates student programming, also includes other topics that might grab the attention of students, including worms and worm composting, edible weeds, bugs, and weird plants and animals.

Sunshine Community Garden

Beyond the farm site, the Black Creek Community Farm has been involved in the creation of the Sunshine Community Garden on the property of a nearby high-rise apartment building. Agsaoay explains that the garden is more than just growing food: It’s a way to build community.

“Growing food is a great connecctor for people. It builds relationships and trust.” Mildred Agsaoay

City Farm School

Jackie Martin from City Farm School in Montreal talks about the urban-agriculture apprenticeship program.

Today on the podcast we head to Montreal to hear about City Farm School, an urban-agriculture apprenticeship program.

Jackie Martin, a co-ordinator with City Farm School, explains that this not-for-profit program uses space provided by Concordia University. In addition to greenhouse space on the 13th floor of a downtown building, the “farm” is located at the Loyola Campus, in a residential neighbourhood. She says that the market garden is roughly the size of a soccer field — and there’s a medicinal-plant garden too.

Apprenticeship Program

The program, which is open to anyone in the community, has two streams: a market-gardener apprenticeship and a medicinal-plants apprenticeship.

The program begins in the greenhouse in March, sowing seeds for transplants for the farm and for a plant sale. In May, students begin transplanting and seeding at the market garden.

The community market opens in June. Students take part in harvesting for market, preparing produce for market, and staffing the market. Later in summer students save seeds for the following year.

Before graduating students are expected to teach a free workshop that is open to the public. Martin says that past topics have included seeding, fermentation, and pest control — with some of the more memorable topics being herbal medicine for pets and edible weeds.

Community Outreach

The weekly market has been an important way to connect with the community. “Our neighbours are our biggest supporters, and always have been,” says Martin. She explains that many of their neighbours now grow their own kale, after she sent them home from market with their own kale seed. It’s not a move that increases kale sales — but it’s in keeping with their mandate to encourage gardening in the city.

Martin says former students have gone on to become farmers, teachers, and community organizers. Many of the organizations they now partner with were created by former students.

City Farm School Documentary

Watch this 3-part documentary about City Farm School that was made by a former student.

Gardening and PTSD

Nachum Lamour-Fridman from Borgani talks about PTSD and the role that the outdoors and agriculture can play in healing.

Today on the podcast we explore the idea of healing through growing.

We travel to Israel, to meet Nachum Lamour-Fridman. He uses plants and growing as part of the programming at the Borgani community centre he founded for PTSD sufferers and their families.

Lamour-Fridman’s dream is to create a model of a sustainability centre that can be used to help PTSD sufferers everywhere.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Lamour-Fridman realized the power of growing when, in the depths of his own PTSD, being outdoors and amongst plants was one of the things that helped him rise up and begin to heal.

He says that he was sometimes unable to sleep or eat, making it difficult to function. Yet living in a kibbutz, where there is a strong culture of work, he says that those who can’t work can be ostracized. “It affected my soul; it affected my ability to engage reality,” he says as he talks about how PTSD affected his ability to live and work in his own community.

He recently spoke to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, where his key message was for it to act now to help those with PTSD, likening untreated trauma to a terminal cancer or an auto-immune disease.

Borgani

Lamour-Fridman explains that Borgani translates into “pit garden,” a fitting name given that the centre is located in a what was a stone quarry in Roman times.

The old quarry had previously been used by the community as part of a cattle farming operation, but for the past 20 years was used as a garbage dump.

Lamour-Fridman began to clean it out.

At first, he wasn’t able to stay in the enclosed space for long, and might only stay 5 minutes. Now it’s become a place of comfort and healing for him. “Today when I go there it’s like a stone womb,” he explains.

The Borgani sustainability centre brings together agriculture, technology, and education. It includes a greenhouse and farm, selling food baskets to the community. There is also a composting facility, and studios where participants make furniture and art.

“It’s not a charity,” he explains, pointing out that participants take part in the full cycle of growing, tending, and selling. He notes the importance of participants seeing the value in what they do.

Looking ahead, he says, “We have big plans.” These plans include yoga and therapy through movement and music.

“When you start, it doesn’t matter if it’s a half-a-metre garden or 20 acres. When you start, don’t stop. Because nature doesn’t stop and life doesn’t stop.”

Lamour-Fridman and his family

Civil Disobedience with Vegetables

Marie-Hélène Jacques from Les Urbainculteurs joins us to talk about moving the needle on growing food in Quebec City

Today on the podcast we head to Quebec City to talk about civil disobedience: Civil disobedience with vegetables.

Marie-Hélène Jacques from the not-for-profit organization Les Urbainculteurs – which translates into urban growers – joins us to talk about moving the needle on growing food in Quebec City.

The urban agriculture scene in Quebec City is hot right now. Jacques says, “It’s not like a wave of interest that’s happening now in gardening — it’s a tsunami of interest.”

Civil Disobedience with Vegetables

Jacques says that it was only in 2019 that growing vegetables in front yards became legal in Quebec City.

Back in 2013, when I was on a garden writer’s tour of Quebec City, we visited an installation of vegetables growing right in front of the National Assembly building in the centre of the city.

Jacques explains that Les Urbainculteurs was able to get around the rules and grow vegetables in front of the building because of a technicality … the official address of the building is on another street.

She says this project got a lot of notice, adding, “It was a game-changing moment for urban agriculture in Quebec City.”

A Rooftop Garden

Jacques talks about the former Lauberivière garden, which was on the roof of a soup kitchen in the city core.

This diverse garden of vegetables and small fruit consisted entirely of fabric pots. The harvest went to the soup kitchen below…about 1 metric tonne of it a year.

Jacques says that one of the magical aspects of the Lauberivière garden was the way it brought together people who might otherwise have never met or spoken: She recalls seeing teenagers learning French speaking to stroke victims and to people doing community work.

The closing of the rooftop garden in 2016 left a big hole in the organization. “It was one of our most meaningful projects,” says Jacques.

An Urban Farm in the Port

The challenge was to find a new location that was centrally located, accessible by bike, transit, and walking. Jacques says they waited for a suitable site—even turning down some possible sites.

When a space in the port area of the city became available, they felt they had the right location. There had formerly been a farmer’s market on the site, and the community sorely missed having a focal point.

The new bio-intensive urban garden, started in 2020, consists of a series of long beds on concrete. “It’s really like a small farm,” she says.

Jacques says this new garden, Louise Basin Gardens, is an intersecting point of food security, community, education, and growing.

Making Home and Corporate Vegetable Gardens

Shawn Manning from Urban Seedling talks about helping people grow vegetable gardens and using corporate gardens to foster food security.

Today on the podcast we head to Montreal to hang out with Shawn Manning from Urban Seedling. He tells us how, 10 years ago, he channelled his love of growing vegetables into a business specialized in creating vegetable gardens.

Along with helping people create and grow vegetable gardens, another goal was to improve food security in the city. He realized that installing gardens for people who can afford a gardener probably doesn’t move the needle much on food security…but he’s tweaked the business to include corporate gardens—and use that as a way to improve food security in Montreal.

The Business of Vegetable Gardens

The business has evolved to include home vegetable-garden installation, planting, a garden centre, seedling sales, and corporate gardens.

Manning says that when he started, he created, planted, and cared for home vegetable gardens. But he found that some people are not interested in gardening—they only want fresh produce. “They didn’t really care about the vegetable garden, they just wanted the vegetables,” he explains.

He decided this wasn’t what he wanted. He tells people who are not interested in gardening that it’s best to order a produce basket from a farm of a CSA. “What I want is people that will actually appreciate their garden,” he says.

As well as focusing on clients who want to garden, he now teaches clients how to care for the garden. Initially, he cared for gardens through the season. But he grew to believe that clients would have the best results if they checked their gardens daily. As a result, he stopped offering maintenance service.

Customers also receive videos and a newsletter with guidance about how to care for the garden.

Corporate Gardens

Last year he was involved in 45 corporate gardens. Manning says that food security has always been a central tenet of the business, but corporate gardens have proven the best way to contribute to food security in the Montreal.

There are a couple of different corporate-garden models. In one model, Urban Seedling installs the garden and helps to get it going—and then employees or volunteers tend the garden and donate the harvest to food banks. “It’s definitely a really, really well received concept,” he says.

In another model, the garden is for employees. “It gives them another reason to want to go to work,” he says.

Backyard Urban Farming in Toronto

Arlene Hazzan Green and Marc Green from the Backyard Urban Farm Company talk about installing food gardens and the urban food-growing scene in Toronto.

We chat with Arlene Hazzan Green and Marc Green, co-owners of The Backyard Urban Farm Company (BUFCO) in Toronto about their mission to help people grow food at home.

They are edible landscapers who help people plan, plant, and maintain food gardens. They have even ventured into wheelchair-accessible beds.

From Film to Farming

Hazzan Green explains why, after over 30 years in the film industry, they decided to venture into the business of edible landscaping, saying, “It was the lifestyle it was offering us that had such an appeal.”

In hindsight, she realized that a lot of the film scripts she had been pitching had a farming theme. “I realized that what I was trying to do in my writing was create the life that I want to live,” she says.

Process

When helping develop edible landscape plans with new gardeners, they look at:

• Where they want to grow

• The growing conditions

• What they like to eat

• How many people they want to feed

• How much time and effort they can put into it

Tips for New Gardeners

For new gardeners, Green and Hazzan Green offer the following suggestions:

• Start small. Hazzan Green suggests two or three pots—so that it’s not overwhelming in the beginning. For example, one pot with tomato and basil, another with lettuce, and a third with beans and peas.

• Make a plan. It could be elaborate or simple—but have something planned before shopping…or you might end up buying more than you need.

• Do your research. Don’t go with your first idea. Green says he has seen many people make beds using railway ties or treated wood…only to find out afterwards these are not suited to food gardens.

Coalescing in the Toronto Urban Farm Scene

Hazzan Green says that when they started it was difficult to find agricultural advice tailored to the urban setting. That’s changed a lot in the 12 years they have been in business. “What’s happening now is there’s a coalescing of all these groups—there’s a real network., she says.

“As a group of individual businesses and gardeners and growers we’ve now found a way to unite and become a real force for change in the way we view urban agriculture.”

Hunger Relief through Growing

Mim Michelove and Nan Sterman started the Grab & Grow Gardens Program to help people in their community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Food Deserts are also nursery deserts.”

We head to San Diego, California to chat with Mim Michelove and Nan Sterman, who share a love of growing food and involvement in food activism.

As unemployment in their community grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as the local food supply became shaky, they decided to use their connections with commercial growers, in the community, and with social service agencies to help people feed themselves. The result was the Grab & Grow Gardens program.

Grab & Grow Gardens

The Grab & Grow Gardens kits contain two transplant-size vegetable seedlings in a carry bag, along with growing instructions in English and Spanish. “We do this in Mim’s backyard,” explains Sterman, as she talks about assembling the kits with a small army of volunteers.

Kits are distributed to those in need through hunger relief agencies, school districts, and affordable housing organizations.

At the time of the interview in February, 2021, they had distributed over 8,500 kits.

Initially, everything for the kits was donated. Securing donations of vegetable transplants was possible because they are located in an area with a large vegetable-transplant industry.

As demand for the kits grew, and as they were able to access grants and donations, they began to purchase seed, allowing them to choose the most suitable crops and varieties.

Tips for Launching Community Initiatives

Sterman and Michelove share their tips for successfully launching community initiatives. These include:

• Work with agencies that are already distributing something to the people you want to reach.

• Spread the word about what you want to do in your community; there will be others who want to help, but are not sure what to do.

• Think about what you can do that will help the end user succeed.

• Brainstorm resources in the community, including companies, individuals, and organizations—and then reach out.

“That’s where the power comes in, where you pull people in from all different levels.” Nan Sterman

Crater Garden, Regenerative Farm and Family

Tim Southwell of ABC Acres in Montanna talks about a regenerative approach to farming, family, community—and about his crater garden.

“Our chickens know no boundaries.”

We head to Montana to chat with Tim Southwell of ABC Acres, the permaculture homestead he and his his wife Sarah created.

Southwell, who grew up in suburban Houston, explains that it was while living in Kansas City and growing a front-yard vegetable garden that he was introduced to permaculture and many of the concepts that he uses today on the farm.

In addition to livestock, they have a crater garden, a food hedge, chinampas, and a sunken greenhouse with citrus, bananas, figs, and papaya.

The unique microclimate created by the crater garden permits them to grow apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, and apricots in their harsh climate. He explains, “Every fruit tree we have, we build with it a microclimate.”

Crater Garden

Southwell says that the microclimate in the crater garden—a below-grade garden—is created by a number of things that work together:

1. The winter sun warms the south-facing slope of the garden.

2. Runoff from rain collects at the bottom of the garden, creating a pond—and the water in the pond collects heat that is then radiated at night.

3. The water reflects light onto plants in the surrounding crater garden.

4. Because the garden is below grade, cold winds pass over top of it.

5. While frost normally settles into low areas, it does not settle into the crater garden because the thermal mass of the water creates convection, so the air keeps moving.

6. Large rocks are partially submerged in the pond to act as “battery chargers” in the pond, adding to the thermal mass.

Food Hedge

The food hedge, which Southwell calls the “fedge,” provides privacy, blocks wind, attracts birds, and keeps livestock where they are supposed to be. Food plants in the fedge include:

• brambles

• sand cherry

• serviceberry

• goji

• aronia

• josta

• honeyberry

“My children will be outside grazing the food hedge.”

Chinampas

Southwell explains that he was inspired by systems used by Aztec famers to create “chinampas” on a boggy section of flood plain.

He placed cottonwood logs on the low-lying ground, and then capped them with old hay and leaves, which decompose to create a rich soil. Over time, the decaying, spongy cottonwood logs help to wick moisture upwards.

He says that in this sort of situation it’s important to grow plants that don’t mind moisture. Raspberries grow well for them.

Agritourism

Agritourism become an income generator on the farm in 2017. Southwell noticed a big appetite for opportunities to connect with farms, food production, and nature.

But he felt that farms, and the stories behind them, were poorly represented online. He and Sarah created the online platform yonder.com as a way for to connect people with nature.

Home and Community Cold Cellars

Transition Guelph is building local food-storage capacity through cold cellars.

What’s old is new: Cold cellars are back.

Transition Guelph launches an initiative to build local food-storage capacity through cold cellar education and installations.

We find out what they’re doing—and get tips to help you make a home cold cellars.

We are joined by Steve Tedesco and Ian Findlay from Transition Guelph. Tedesco is a Guelph-area farmer, and Findlay is a contractor specializing in cold cellars.

Why Cold Cellars are Back

Findlay says to think of a cold cellar as a passively-chilled walk-in cooler. He says people with the added food-storage capacity of a cold cellar can store more homegrown produce, and can also stock up on locally grown produce when it is in season.

Tedesco points out that having a cold cellar can change the way meals are planned. “It becomes an active participation sport to manage your cold room and plan your meals around what you have so that nothing goes to waste,” he says.

The Transition Movement

Tedesco explains that the Transition Movement is a global movement focused on building local resilience. Transition Guelph formed in 2009.

Transition chapters undertake projects that strengthen community resilience in six areas:

1. Food and water

2. Energy

3. Environmental stewardship

4. Economic vitality

5. Equity in a community

6. Community engagement

Home Cold Cellars

Findlay suggests spending time to understand 3 key elements to a successful home cold storage.

1. Ventilation to supply fresh air and exhaust warmer, moist air

2. Temperature control (the ideal temperature range is 2-5°C)

3. Humidity (many root vegetables store best in high humidity)

Tedesco and Findlay are finding that many of the newer homes in the Guelph area have a small space under the front porch that is well suited to making into a cold cellar.

Besides making a cold storage under a porch, other approaches include:

• Partitioning off an area in the basement

• Creating a stand-along cold cellar in a hillside (Findlay talks about concrete bunkers)

• A trench storage in garden

Findlay says, “With enough ingenuity and sweat equity you can make any space work.”

From Market Farming to Italian Seeds

Will Nagengast and Lynn Byczynski, talk about their family business Seeds from Italy, food, and market farming

We head to Kansas to speak with Lynn Byczynski and Will Nagengast about market farming, cut flowers, farm journalism, Italian culinary traditions, and seeds. Their family business is Seeds from Italy.

Byczynski founded Growing for Market, a magazine for market farmers. She is the author of Market Farming Success, The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers, The Hoophouse Handbook.

The Journey into the Seed Business

Byczynski says that when the farm wasn’t enough to support the family, she branched out into producing Growing for Market using her background in journalism and newspaper reporting.

She found that the writing and farming fed off of each other: While interviewing people for articles, she heard ideas that they could try on their farm; and things they were doing on their own farm could be shared with other farmers in Growing for Market.

Seeds from Italy

She says the hair on the back of her neck stood up when an advertiser for her Growing for Market newsletter told her that the sale of his Italian seed distribution business had fallen through. “I could just feel this was the next thing we were going to do,” she says.

The first thing that the family did after taking over Seeds from Italy was to take a trip to Italy to meet the owners of Franchi Seeds, the company whose seed they would be distributing in the United States.

Nagengast and Byczynski say that once home, they immersed themselves in the varieties they were selling by having weekly Italian-themed meals cooked with the Italian varieties they distribute.

Italian Seeds in North America

Italy has a varied climate, with many regional vegetable varieties. They list 23 varieties of zucchini! Most of these different varieties, they explain, are regional varieties.

For North American gardeners thinking about what Italian varieties are best suited to their gardens, they recommend looking to areas of Italy with a similar latitude.

Using Small Edible Landscapes to Make Big Change

We speak with author, educator, and edible-ecosystem designer Zach Loeks from Eastern Ontario.

Zach Loeks

A former market gardener, Loeks has converted his farm into the production of berries, fruit, and edible perennials.

He is also the director of the Ecosystem Solution Institute, which is involved in education projects such as an edible-biodiversity conservation area near Ottawa, Ontario. The site includes herbs, fruit trees, berry bushes, and ground covers, all labelled with interpretive signs.

He believes that many small actions can add up to big change. In his new book, The Edible Ecosystem Solution, he talks about ways to grow edibles, even in small spaces.

Starting Small

Loeks says, “I really believe in the power of the micro-landscape.”

For people interested in incorporating edible plants into a landscape, but unsure where to begin, Loeks shares a couple of tips:

• Design around the lines on the property: Build out from lines such as fence lines, where sidewalk meets the yard, and the edge of the house.

• Connect the dots: Connect the dots between existing ornamental trees instead of starting from scratch. Plant shrubs and herbs beneath the trees. It can be practical too: rather than having to cut the lawn around a tree, it’s easier to cut along the edge of a bed of edibles.

Downtown Rooftop Edible Garden Gives a Breath of Fresh Air

Saskia Vegter, Urban Agricultural Co-ordinator at 401 Richmond

We’re joined by Saskia Vegter, the Urban Agricultural Co-Ordinator at 401 Richmond, a former industrial building that has been transformed into a cultural hub in a dense downtown Toronto neighbourhood.

Vegter, who previously worked in event management, felt drawn to work in horticulture.

"I just remembered the feeling of connection when my hands were in the soil.”

401 Richmond

401 Richmond is a former industrial building, built in 1899. Vegter explains that the currant owner restored the building to transform it into a cultural hub for artists and creative entrepreneurs.

Tenants currently include art galleries, a book publisher, a film festival, artists with studios, and a daycare.

The Rooftop Gardens

401 Richmond rooftop garden

The rooftop has three garden areas:

1. A deck-patio area, which includes trees and shrubs in containers

2. An extensive sedum green roof

3. The “mini farm,” which has fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers for cutting growing in containers

Tenants use the rooftop for meetings, lunches, to meditate—or just to get a breath of fresh air, says Vegter.

Children from the daycare often spend time on the rooftop, which provides the opportunity for activities such as herb tasting.

Rooftop Crops

• Ultra-dwarf apple trees grow in the same containers as the chums (cherry-plums), with strawberry plants at the base

• Luffa grows up the pergola

• Planters with edibles are planned for edibility AND colour, using plants with ornamental properties

• New to the garden this year is a fig tree

Wildlife on the Rooftop

Despite being on a rooftop in a downtown neighbourhood, Vegter says that there are lots of visitors. She laughs as she talks about the squirrel that left her gifts of half-eaten tomatoes during the summer.

She says that other wildlife includes swallowtail caterpillars, hummingbirds, honeybees, and ladybugs.

Profitable Small-Scale Farming

JM Fortier talks about successful small-scale farming, his book, and his new magazine, Growers & Co.

Small-scale farming expert JM Fortier joins us to talk about his road to profitable small-scale farming. He’s an innovator who is out to remake agriculture.

Fortier talks about his own farm, Les Jardins de la Grelinette, as well as his work in training a new crop of farmers at a model polyculture farm in Hemmingford, Quebec, Ferme des Quatre-Temps.

He hopes to connect with non-farmers too, so that they can have a window into the world of farming. He’s done that with a television show, and his newest project—a magazine.

Successful Small-Scale Farming

Fortier is quick to point out that a profitable small farm is not an oxymoron. In his book, The Market Gardener, he outlines the steps that he took to earn more than $100,000 from a 1.5-acre market garden. That figure has risen to over $200,000 today.

He notes that a key element to profitable small-scale farming is to manage expenses.

He says successful small-scale farmers share these traits:

• Dedication

• Entrepreneurial outlook

• A strong sense of customer service

• Ability to work with numbers and deal with accounting

Rock-Star Farmer

Fortier notes that there was a great response to the recent French-language television series Les Fermiers (The Farmers) which documented work at Ferme des Quatre-Temps.

The farmers, he says, became TV rock stars.

While celebrity is nothing new in culinary circles, he’s happy to see the growing interest in farming. And he’s not surprised, because he feels there’s a hunger for knowledge about food.

He notes that 95 per cent of the farmers-in-training he’s working with come from a background other than agriculture.

Connecting with Non-Farmers

The Market Gardener has sold more than 200,000 copies and been translated into 7 languages. Fortier says that the book appeals to would-be farmers as well as people who are simply interested in where food comes from.

His next project? A new magazine.

While many print publications are closing up shop, he says that—just like working with the soil—a print magazine is something that’s very tactile.

A return to small: A return to print—they work nicely together.

From Urban Junk-Food Junkie to Farmer

John Moody

We chat with Kentucky farm educator and homesteader John Moody to learn how a junk-food-eating city kid ended up as a farmer and farm educator.

Moody, who had been heading towards a career in academia so that he could teach, says that in hindsight, “I got a farm so I can teach.”

Food-Buying Club

After a health scare, Moody and his wife began to change their eating habits, buy more whole foods and locally grown foods.

With the change in food buying habits, he noticed that his food bill went way up. “The farmers aren’t getting any of this money I’m spending,” he thought.

That led Moody and his wife to source food directly from farmers and start a food-buying club, Whole Life Buying Club.

Getting into Farming

His interest in growing food evolved out of his interest in healthy food—especially after meeting farmers who were sceptical about cutting their use of external inputs.

So he set out to do it himself.

“I bought a farm, soil not included,” says Moody as he talks about building soil from scratch on a degraded piece of land.

An Outsider’s Perspective

Moody talks about how, on a small farm such as theirs, 30 bottles of specialty elderberry syrup brings in roughly the same amount as what a conventional farmer might get from an acre of corn.

Create a Lifestyle: Starting a Regenerative Farm and Homestead

Ryan Cullen, co-owner of City of Greens farm

We chat with Ryan Cullen, co-owner of City of Greens in Bowmanville, Ontario, about starting a regenerative farm and homestead.

Cullen, who joined us for the last episode to talk about the food-forest garden at Durham College, is in the process of turning a 10-acre property into a regenerative farm and homestead, and is creating a market-garden business as part of that plan.

The Market Garden

The market garden currently has four 50’x50’ plots. The goal is to expand to ten 50’x50’ plots.

There are 12 beds per plot; each bed is 30” wide. Cullen explains that they chose these dimensions because they are suited to standard equipment.

The crop focus is high-yield, high-value crops that are quick to mature. This includes a lot of salad mixes containing arugula, mustard, baby kale, spinach, and lettuce.

Farm Infrastructure

Instead of spending money pouring foundations and building barns, they bought used shipping containers. In addition to costing less, the shipping containers are mobile.

Cullen says that by using shipping containers, the two key pieces of infrastructure that will be the heart of the operation—the cold storage unit and the wash-sort-pack unit—cost them less than $10,000 and were simple to modify and set up.

Marketing and Selling

Cullen says that the goal is to sell directly to consumers.

He finds that Facebook is proving an effective way to connect with customers because it is suited to two-way communication.

The website allows customers to build a customized basket of produce, and then select a pickup location. They have partnered with a few local businesses, allowing them to offer multiple pick-up locations, at predetermined times and locations.

Cullen says that having pre-scheduled pickups means that they are not standing all day at a farmers market waiting to see how much they sell; instead, they know what their sales are before they go.

Top Tip for Would-Be Farmers

“Start small, but start.”

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

Steven Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

We chat with Steven Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the Toronto-based industry association that supports the North American green roof and green wall industries. He talks about about what goes into a green roof, what’s new in green roofs, and how home owners can find out more about green roofs.

Why Green Roofs

The need for green roofs goes beyond creating more space to garden. Peck talks about the urban heat island effect, which can make urban areas up to 10°C warmer than rural areas.

He explains that the effect is the result of the removal of vegetation—which is replaced by surfaces that radiate heat.

“It’s sort of an outdoor air conditioning, all that vegetation.”

He says that vegetation is like a natural form of air conditioning—and green roofs keep buildings—and the city—cooler.

What’s New in Green Roofs

A lot has changed since Green Roof for Healthy Cities was founded in 1998. At that time, the green roof industry had yet to be developed and policy developed to permit and encourage green roofs.

Peck says that there have been many recent developments in the industry:

• There are more companies producing media for green roofs than in the past. Peck explains that green roofs are not made with soil; rather, they use an engineered growing medium, which is designed to drain, be non-compressive, and support plant life.

• Modular systems that include a number of components such as the growing medium, a membrane, and edging are becoming widely available.

• Some plants used for green roofs are now available in rolls…and can be unrolled much like a roll of sod.

Green Roofs and GROWING FOOD

Peck explains that broadly speaking there are two types of green roof:

• extensive green roofs are quite thin, and cover a large area (these are often made with very hardy plants such as sedum)

• intensive green roofs have a thicker layer of growing medium and are more like rooftop gardens (these are the sorts of green roofs likely to be used in rooftop food production)

He is seeing more large-scale rooftop food growing operations such as the rooftop garden at Ryerson University in Toronto, and the Brooklin Grange in New York.

“Now we’re seeing a proliferation of rooftop farms.”

For homeowners interested in finding out more about green roofs, Pecks says a first step is usually a structural assessment, to determine what weight a roof can bear.

Some municipalities have incentive programs. For example, Toronto has the Eco-Roof Incentive Program.

Peck says to look for service providers with a Green Roof Professional (GRP) designation. These professionals can be found on the association website.

Community Compost Exchange Program Makes Food Accessible

Paige Lockett from PACT talks about garden-based experiential learning.

We chat with Paige Lockett, the director of operations for The PACT Urban Peace Program in Toronto about garden-based experiential learning for at-risk you and about a Community Compost Exchange Program.

Garden-Based Experiential Learning

Through its Grow to Learn partnership with the Toronto District School Board, PACT provides experiential garden-based learning at three gardens and one orchard located on school properties.

The gardens are used to teach subjects as diverse as English as a second language to carbon sequestration. Lockett says that the vermicomposting program is especially popular.

Community Compost Exchange Program

The community compost exchange program provides participants with bags in which they can contribute home kitchen waste for composting. In exchange, they are given “PACT dollars” that can be used to purchase fresh produce at the PACT produce market.

A Community Pulls Together to Save a Garden

Nathan Larson, Director, Cultivate Health Initiative

We chat with Nathan Larson, Director of the Cultivate Health Initiative in Madison, Wisconsin.

A Community Space

When we visited Madison in summer 2019 to attend the National Children and Youth Gardening Symposium, Larson gave us a tour of a wonderful community garden—the Troy Community Garden.

There are currently about 100 families growing food there…although at one point it looked as if the land on which the garden stands would be sold off for a housing development.

“It was a much-loved open space.”

Larson talks about how people and groups pulled together to find a way to save the space.

“It’s one of those inspirational stories of a group of neighbours that got together.”

The plot of land was reimagined to include:

• community garden plots

• an urban farm with a CSA

• a kids garden

• some housing

• a tall-grass prairie restoration project

• a food forest

Garden-Based Learning for Children

When we visited the Troy Community Garden, we were struck by signs for a “worm city” and the “mud pie kitchen.” Larson is passionate about garden-based education.

The garden now includes a pizza oven that is used for weekly nights, along with music.

He is the author of Teaching in Nature's Classroom: Principles of Garden-Based Education and serves on the advisory council for the School Garden Support Organization Network, along with the Wellness Advisory Council for the local school district.

Cultivate Health Initiative

The Cultivate Health Initiative is a joint public-health project of Rooted and the Environmental Design Lab at UW-Madison to grow and sustain the school garden network and movement in Wisconsin.

A Garden Space Built for Sharing

Sarah Dobec is the Carrot Green Roof Coordinator

We check in with Sarah Dobec, the co-ordinator of the Carrot Green Roof, an inspiring rooftop garden that we visited for the first time earlier this year.

Dobec explains that this unique community space was originally imagined by architects and landscapers—and also by artists and community members.

Of the approximately 8,000 square feet on the rooftop, approximately 2,000 square feet is used to grow food. There is also a meadow garden, bee hives, and a low-growing area with sedums.

This year, because of the pandemic, more space is devoted to growing food.

A Community Space

The community space on the roof, which includes tables, chairs, and a food preparation area, is used to bring people together. Dobec says that the space is rented out for private functions—and is provided for free for those sharing knowledge that fits in with the values of the Carrot Green Roof.

“The space was built to bring people together.”

The programming in the community space is different every year. Dobec recalls one year when a group performed a play on the roof, using the garden space all around the community space in which to perform.

“They used the whole garden space to have a play.”

Connecting Food and Community

“This past Friday we harvested 34 pounds of food.”

The 34 pounds of food harvest this past Friday went to a nearby market.

The Carrot Green Roof has partnered with Building Roots, a social venture with a focus on providing access to fresh food.

Building Roots sells the harvest in pay-what-you-can baskets at Toronto’s Moss Park Market. “Everything that we harvest off our roof goes to them,” she says.

Challenges of Rooftop Growing

Weight is an important consideration for a rooftop garden. Because of that, many parts of the garden have only 4” of soil.

Dobec says that she didn’t hold out much hope this spring for the cabbages, planted in a mere 6” of soil. But they’ve done extremely well.

Urban Farming to Grow Social Change

Jessey Njau and Misha Shodjaee of Zawadi Farm

Toronto urban farmers Jessey Njau and Misha Shodjaee join us to talk about their journey into growing food and using food and farming as a tool for social change.

Zawadi Farm

Their farm, Zawadi Farm, began on land provided by a local garden centre.

They now farm Njau’s yard, other yards in their neighbourhood, as well as space at Toronto’s Downsview Park, which has land dedicated to urban agriculture.

(This year, Emma is helping manage the Zawadi Farm tomato crop at Downsview Park. Follow Emma on Instagram to see harvest pictures.)

• CLICK HERE TO HEAR OUR PREVIOUS CHAT WITH NJAU, WHERE HE TALKS ABOUT HIS MOVE FROM A TECH CAREER INTO FARMING.

The Path to Growing

Njau explains that he was deeply inspired by Vancouver urban farmer Michael Abelman, who uses urban farming as a way to build community and effect social change.

• CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO OUR INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL ABELMAN.

Looking Ahead

Success for Shodjaee and Njau is growing an interest in food production—not growing the amount of space they cultivate.

“We want to be able to grow farmers.”

Broken Crayons Still Colour

Njau explains the significance of the phrase on their sweaters, “Broken Crayons Still Colour.”

“Soil doesn’t ask you questions … I don’t care if you had a broken past.”